OUR MISSION

To inspire individuals and enrich communities through diverse and inventive musical experiences.

OUR VISION

Lives changed through music.

OUR VALUES

Connection

We value and nurture rich and often unexpected connections among musical genres, art forms, and ideas; between people and places; between the past and the present.

Exploration

We believe that openness to new experiences and enthusiasm for learning are vital to human experience. At the vanguard of arts organizations, we continually evolve our ways of presenting to combine an unusual mix of in-depth exploration and accessibility.

Excellence

DACAMERA has become synonymous with quality; the common denominator of our diverse activities, on stage and in the community, is excellence.

ABOUT DACAMERA

Hailed as “reliably adventurous” by the Washington Post and “perennially thoughtful” by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross, DACAMERA is internationally recognized as a leading producer and presenter of chamber music and jazz, committed to bringing its audiences transformative musical experiences. Presenting an annual subscription series in Houston’s downtown Theater District and at The Menil Collection, DACAMERA brings the world’s leading artists to Houston, and continually evolves new and meaningful ways of presenting music.

Under the artistic direction of pianist Sarah Rothenberg since 1994, DACAMERA programs create connections among musical genres, art forms and ideas; between people and places; between the past and the present. The diversity of its commissioning history reflects the organization’s values, with over 30 new works from such composers as Matthew Aucoin, Shih-hui Chen, Gabriela Lena Frank, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Tobias Picker, Kaija Saariaho, Wayne Shorter and Charles Wuorinen. The 21-22 season saw the expansion of DACAMERA’s offerings with the inaugural Houston SUMMERJAZZ, and the premiere of composer Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife), commissioned with Rothko Chapel in celebration of the Chapel’s 50th anniversary. The premiere received extensive national press coverage in The New York Times, The New Yorker and the Washington Post and on BBC America and National Public Radio. In the fall of 2022, Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) was given a new staging by world-renowned director Peter Sellars at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. The piece was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

An early innovator in interdisciplinary performance, DACAMERA’s Music and the Literary Imagination series, conceived and directed by Sarah Rothenberg, was presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center from 1995 to 1999, with subsequent performances presented by The Kennedy Center (Washington), De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), Bard Summerscape, Barbican Centre (London), and across the U.S.; and Moondrunk, hailed as “the birth of a new genre,” inaugurated Lincoln Center’s New Visions series.  Recent original productions include A Proust Sonata, The Diary of Virginia Woolf and In the Garden of Dreams; as well as Jason Moran’s Holed Up and Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre, both commissioned by DACAMERA.

DACAMERA’s Education and Community Initiatives have received national attention for its Young Artist Program, a professional development program for outstanding musicians that emphasizes community advocacy and brings Young Artist-teachers into classrooms, introducing music into STEM and humanities lessons. Free community performances include Stop, Look and Listen! concerts at The Menil Collection, with music curated for the changing art exhibitions; A Little Day Music, the city’s longest-running free series; jazz concerts at Discovery Green; and, in 2018, Beethoven for All, presenting the complete Beethoven string quartets throughout Houston in free performances.

DACAMERA produced recordings include a critically-acclaimed disc on the prestigious ECM label, featuring Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel and works of Satie and John Cage; and an all-Kaija Saariaho disc on Ondine featuring the DACAMERA-commissioned Sombre. Previous recordings include Heartsounds: The Chamber Music of George Tsontakis on Koch and chamber works by Charles Wuorinen, including the DACAMERA-commissioned Ashberyana, on Naxos. Another DACAMERA commission, Tobias Picker’s Quintet, performed by Sarah Rothenberg and the Brentano String Quartet, appears on the 2014 CD Invisible Lilacs on Tzadik.

The recipient of numerous awards, DACAMERA was awarded three of the National Endowment for the Arts’ coveted American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius grants. A three-time winner of Chamber Music America/ASCAP’s Adventurous Programming Award, in 2007 DACAMERA was chosen by its peers to receive the CMAcclaim National Award in recognition of the organization’s “significant and lasting contribution to the cultural life of its region.” Critically acclaimed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Chamber Music, Time Out/New York, Inside Arts and The Washington Post, The New Yorker praised DACAMERA’s 20-21 streaming series as one that “that stands apart from the virtual crowd.” The Houston Chronicle describes DACAMERA as “a Houston gem with a unique niche in the city’s milieu of performing arts.”

DACAMERA Milestones

1987 – Organization founded by violinist Sergiu Luca

1988 – First concerts at Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater and The Menil Collection

1988 – First outreach series, A Little Day Music, begins, going on to serve tens of thousands of students, seniors and downtown workers with free concerts

1991 – First grant received from National Endowment for the Arts

1993 – DACAMERA becomes Houston Theater District organization, joining Alley Theatre, Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Symphony, Society for the Performing Arts and Theater Under the Stars

1994 – Pianist Sarah Rothenberg becomes Artistic Director

1995 – DACAMERA Jazz series inaugurated with vocalist Abbey Lincoln and trumpeter Roy Hargrove

1995 – First production in Music and the Literary Imagination series, Marcel Proust’s Paris, has Houston premiere and is presented in New York as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series

1995 – DACAMERA offices move to 1427 Branard location

1996 – Working Capital Reserve Fund established

1996 – Meet the Composer grant received for commissioning of George Tsontakis’s Meditations at Perigee

1996 – St. Petersburg Legacy presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center

1997 – Flowers of Evil, Kafka’s Vision and The Musical World of Thomas Mann presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center

1997 – Marcel Proust’s Paris presented at Washington, D.C’s Kennedy Center

1998 – Marcel Proust’s Paris presented as part of Cervantino International Festival in Guanajato, Mexico

1998 – Surrealism presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center

1998 – Music/dance theater program Moondrunk premieres at Wortham Theater Center

1998 – Revenues first exceed $1 million

1998/1999 – Music and the Literary Imagination series presented by De Ijsbreker Series in Amsterdam and Maastricht, The Netherlands

1999 – Moondrunk opens Lincoln Center’s New Visions series to sold-out houses at New Victory Theater; American Theater hails as “birth of a new genre”

1999 – DACAMERA Endowment Fund established

1999 – St. Petersburg Legacy presented at London’s Barbican Centre as part of the BITE Festival

1999 – Chamber Music America/American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Commendation for Original Programming Concepts

1999 – Education and Outreach department formally established with a grant from Wortham Foundation

2000 – DACAMERA embarks on a one-year partnership with Marian Anderson String Quartet and Texaco Foundation’s Early Notes program to bring chamber music residencies to six rural communities throughout the Southwest

2001 – Community Residency Project with Project GRAD brings Marian Anderson String Quartet to two schools in Houston’s Near North Side for two years

2001 – DACAMERA concerts begin to be regularly broadcast on National Public Radio’s Performance Today

2002 – Creation of Epigraph for a Condemned Book, a solo piano/multimedia performance project, co-commissioned with Yale Repertory Theatre, the University Musical Society of University of Michigan and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

2003 – Community Residency Project with Ying Quartet brings chamber music to the workplace at Shell Oil and BMC Software, with support of Heartland Arts Fund

2004 – Community Residency with Miró Quartet brings ensemble to local corporations and organizations including The Salvation Army and the Chinese Community Center

2004 – Community Residency Project with Brentano String Quartet and Writers in the Schools exploring music and poetry with young students, made possible by Chamber Music America

2004 – DACAMERA recording, Heartsounds: Music of George Tsontakis, issued on Koch International Classic label, made possible in part by grant from Aaron Copland Fund

2006 – Community Residency Project with JazzReach features Metta Quintet master classes, student concerts

2006 – Community Residency Project brings Imani Winds to Houston Independent School District schools, with support from Chamber Music America

2006 – Stop, Look and Listen! free family series at The Menil Collection begins

2007 – The String Quartet in America: Then and Now: symposium and master classes with Juilliard String Quartet and others at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, marking the quartet’s 60th anniversary. Performance of Bartók quartet cycle at The Menil Collection.

2007 – Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming

2007 – CMAcclaim Award from Chamber Music America, for significant contribution to the cultural life of our region.

2008 – The Music of Charles Wuorinen released on Naxos label, with support from Aaron Copland Fund and National Endowment for the Arts

2008 – Community Residency with So Percussion

2009 – Community Residency with Chiara String Quartet

2009 – Young Artist Program providing professional development and performance opportunities for emerging chamber music and jazz musicians established.

2009 – In partnership with KUHF, DACAMERA introduces podcast of live concert recordings.

2010 – Community Residency with Ben Allison Band.

2010 – DACAMERA receives three major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest cumulative grant from the federal agency in Da Camera’s history

2010 – Earth Day Jazz in the Park, sponsored by Waste Management and Whole Foods Market, brings student jazz ensembles to Miller Outdoor Theatre on Earth Day, 2010.

2010 – DACAMERA production Chopin in Paris, featuring pianist and Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg, goes to Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Michigan, co-presented by Fontana Chamber Arts

2011 – DACAMERA begins annual series, Da Camera JAM at Discovery Green, bringing local and national jazz artists to the downtown park for four concerts celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month.

2011 – World premiere of a Tobias Picker’s Piano Quintet: Live Oaks, commissioned by DACAMERA

2012 – DACAMERA announces 12/13 25th Anniversary Season with world premieres by Kaija Saariaho, Pierre Jalbert and Richard Lavenda, the new original production Sarah’s Rothenberg’s In the Garden of Dreams and the first-ever Houston cycle of the Shostakovich string quartets, performed over two seasons by the Jerusalem Quartet.

2012 – DACAMERA marks the centennial of composer John Cage with a MUSICIRCUS at the Menil Collection featuring the Meehan/Perkins Duo, mezzo soprano Isabelle Ganz, percussionist Allen Otte and student ensembles from around the state of Texas. The event marks the beginning of a residency with Meehan/Perkins Duo, celebrating the lives and music of John Cage and Steve Reich.

2013 — World premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre, commissioned by DACAMERA.

2014 — Completion of historic Shostakovich String Quartet cycle by the Jerusalem String Quartet; first time complete cycle performed in Houston

2014 — World premiere of Vijay Iyer’s Piano Quintet, co-commissioned by DACAMERA.

2014 — Surpassing the original fundraising goal of $500,000, the Artistic Development Fund established in 2013 reaches $514,000. Fund provide the essential seed money for ambitious artistic initiatives, including commissions, recordings, residencies, original productions and new media initiatives.

2014 — Jason Moran: Homecoming multi-year residency kicks off with September visit to Houston by the pianist and composer. Year 1 of residency includes world premiere of DACAMERA-commissioned Holed Up: The Rauschenberg Project.

2015 — DACAMERA releases two new recordings, Rothko Chapel on the ECM label featuring Morton Feldman’s masterpiece of the same name, and Kaija Saariaho: Let the wind speak on the Ondine label, featuring the Da Camera-commissioned Sombre.

2015 — At the invitation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, DACAMERA programs four evenings of music in the spectacular Spiegeltent at Bayou Bend.

2016 — DACAMERA moves to current office and music center at 1402 Sul Ross, expanding to offer a rehearsal room for visiting artists, staff and Da Camera Young Artists.

2016 — DACAMERA awarded $50,000 Cultural District Project grant by the Texas Commission on the Arts, supporting significant cultural tourism projects, including arts programming that will attract visitors from 50 miles or more outside Houston.

2016 — World premiere of Sarah Rothenberg’s A Proust Sonata, an original production exploring the life and work of the great French author.

2016 – DACAMERA announces that it has received a $1.64 million bequest from the estate of James K. Schooler, the largest gift in the organization’s history.

2016 — Jason Moran Homecoming Residency continues with school visits and community events including Meet Me at MacGregor, part of Counter Current 16, presented by residency partner the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

2016 — DACAMERA presents the world premiere of The Colorado, a documentary with live original music by Paola Prestini, John Luther Adams and others, exploring water, land and survival in the Colorado River Basin.

2017 – Jason Moran Homecoming Residency concludes with school visits, the Thelonious Monk tribute In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall, 1959 and a free concert at Discovery Green with Jason Moran, Chris Walker and Denardo Coleman.

2017 – DACAMERA presents Beethoven for All: The complete Beethoven string quartet cycle in free concerts throughout 30th Anniversary 17­­­–18 season.

2018 – The original production A Proust Sonata has its New York premiere in a co-presentation with French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF).

2018 – Sarah Rothenberg celebrates 25 years as DACAMERA’s Artistic Director

2021 – DACAMERA receives critical acclaim from The New Yorker for a streaming series “that stands apart from the virtual crowd”

2021 – DACAMERA expands its offerings with the inaugural Houston SUMMERJAZZ weekend

2022 – Premiere of composer Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife), commissioned with Rothko Chapel in celebration of the Chapel’s 50th anniversary, with extensive national press coverage in The New York Times, The New Yorker and the Washington Post and on National Public Radio.

2022 – DACAMERA presents the complete Beethoven String Quartet cycle, performed by Elias String Quartet in chronological order over 6 concerts at The Menil Collection and Hobby Center

2023 – DACAMERA present the premiere of composer-drummer Kendrick Scott’s Unearthed, a new DACAMERA production memorializing the Sugar Land 95, bringing together original music, poetry and visuals. Unearthed pays tribute to the tragic history behind the recent discovery of the remains of 95 Black people in unmarked graves in Sugar Land, Texas.

Meet Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg

Committed to creating new audiences for classical music and jazz, and a firm believer in the accessibility of great music of all genres, pianist Sarah Rothenberg is recognized internationally as a leader in innovative programming. Described as “a prolific and creative thinker” by The Wall Street Journal, Sarah Rothenberg has a unique career as concert pianist, writer, educator, producer and creator of interdisciplinary performances linking music to literature, visual art and ideas. In 2019, she celebrated her 25th anniversary as artistic director of DACAMERA. Prior to arriving at DACAMERA, Sarah Rothenberg was co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Bard Music Festival in New York.

A pianist of “heart, intellect and fabulous technical resources” (Fanfare) and “power and introspection” (The New York Times), she has performed at Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Great Performers at Lincoln Center (New York), Barbican Centre (London), The Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Gilmore Piano Festival, 92nd Street Y, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Library of Congress, Van Cliburn Foundation, The Getty Museum, Ojai Festival and concert series across the United States. Sarah Rothenberg ended last season with the world premiere of Vijay Iyer’s solo piano work, For My Father; and her 2022-23 season opened with nine performances in New York of director Peter Sellars’s staging of Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) at the Park Avenue Armory.

Original DACAMERA productions conceived, directed and performed by Sarah Rothenberg include A Proust Sonata, which received its New York premiere to critical acclaim in 2018; In the Garden of Dreams, a fin-de-siècle Vienna music, art, ideas; The Blue Rider: Kandinsky and Music, originally commissioned and produced by Works & Process at The Guggenheim and Columbia University’s Miller Theater; and Chopin in Paris: Epigraph for a Condemned Book (Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven; University Musical Society, Ann Arbor; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Champaign-Urbana). Sarah Rothenberg’s Music and the Literary Imagination series, created for DACAMERA and inspired by the writings of Proust, Mann, Kafka, Baudelaire, and Akhmatova was presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center for five consecutive seasons. Moondrunk, a staging of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, inaugurated Lincoln Center’s New Visions series in 1999. Her lectures and performances on art and music include The Guggenheim Museum, The Jewish Museum (New York), Museum of Fine Arts Houston and The Menil Collection. She appeared as soloist in over 75 performances of choreographer/director Martha Clarke’s Cheri at New York’s off-Broadway Signature Theatre, Ravenna Festival, Kennedy Center and London’s Royal Opera House.

Sarah Rothenberg’s scholarly research has resulted in her U.S. premiere performances and recordings of Fanny Mendelssohn’s Das Jahr  (Independent Record Companies Award for Best Solo Classical Recording 1996); Rediscovering the Russian Avant-Garde: Lourié, Mosolov and Roslavetz (GM); and Shadows and Fragments: Piano Works of Brahms and Schoenberg. Additional acclaimed recordings include Messiaen Visions de l’Amen (with Marilyn Nonken), and DACAMERA’s Rothko Chapel: Satie, Cage and Feldman on ECM, as well as works of Wuorinen, Carter, Perle, Picker, Ran, Tower and Tsontakis, in collaboration with the composers. She has performed over 80 world premieres and was a member of the New York contemporary music ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players.

Under her leadership, DACAMERA has been a three-time winner of Chamber Music America-ASCAP’s Adventurous Programming Award, was awarded the CMAcclaim Award, and received a Special Commendation for Outstanding Programming Concepts from Chamber Music America in 1999. Formerly chair of the music department at Bard College, Sarah Rothenberg has taught at Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts, been a Senior Fellow at the New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics in New York, and visiting artist-in-residence at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at University of Houston and Banff Centre for the Arts. She currently teaches in Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts.

Sarah Rothenberg’s writings appear in literary, art and musical publications, including The Musical Quarterly, Brick, Nexus, TriQuarterly, Conjunctions, The Threepenny Review, PN Review (UK), Perspectives in New Music; and the books The Crisis of Criticism (ed. Berger/New Press); Rackstraw Downes: Onsite Paintings (London/Parrish Art Museum 2010); Cy Twombly: Treatise on the Veil (White/Menil Collection) and the Moody Center’s recent Artists and the Rothko Chapel.

Sarah Rothenberg’s early training was at The Juilliard School with Herbert Stessin. After graduating from The Curtis Institute of Music, where her teachers were Seymour Lipkin and Mieczeslaw Horszowski, she studied the music of Olivier Messiaen in Paris with the composer’s wife, Yvonne Loriod. In 2000 she was awarded the Medal of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government.

COMMISSIONS

The commissioning of new works is vital to DACAMERA’s mission. DACAMERA has been involved in the commissioning of almost 40 new works by some of the nation’s and the world’s leading composers. A particular focus of DACAMERA’s recent commissioning activity has been The DACAMERA Triptych. 

The DACAMERA Triptych: Rothko, Rauschenberg, Twombly

In celebration of DACAMERA’s 25th anniversary, DACAMERA’s ambitious commissioning project invited major composers to respond to three artists that are particularly associated with The Menil Collection: Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. The first work is Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre, commissioned for Rothko Chapel, and premiered in 2013. The second work is Jason Moran’s Holed Up: The Rauschenberg Project, which had its world premiere in 2015. The third work is Tyshawn Sorey’s Pultizer Prize finalist Monochromatic Light (Afterlife), co-commissioned by DACAMERA and Rothko Chapel in celebration of the Chapel’s 50th anniversary, which had its world premiere at the Chapel in February 2022.

DACAMERA Commissioning History

BRUCE ADOLPHE
ContraDictions
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus II. Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium ‡ including DACAMERA.

Fra(nz)g-mentation
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Lee, cello); Reed College, Chamber Music Northwest, Portland; July 9, 2011
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; The Menil Collection, Houston; December 6, 2011
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: Part of the Brentano String Quartet’s Fragments: Connecting Past and Present project. Responding to Schubert’s unfinished Quartet in C Minor, D703. Commissioned by the Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium† including Da Camera of Houston.

MATTHEW AUCOIN
String Quartet
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; The Menil Collection, December 6, 2019
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: Co-commissioned by DACAMERA, Carnegie Hall, Union College Concert Series and La Jolla Music Society

ANTHONY BRANDT
The Birth of Something
Recording: Anthony Brandt: The Birth of Something (Albany)
World premiere: Karol Bennett, soprano; Michael Chioldi, baritone; Enso String Quartet (Maureen Nelson, violin; John Marcus, violin; Robert Brophy, viola; Richard Belcher, cello); Andrea Moore, percussion; Daniel Myssyk, conductor; Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, February 24, 2006
Instrumentation: soprano; baritone; string quartet; percussion
Note: Commission supported by a challenge grant from Nina and Michael Zilkha and the DACAMERA Commissioning Club.

SHIH-HUI CHEN
Shu Shon Key (Remembrance)
World premiere: Broyhill Chamber Ensemble; An Appalachian Summer Festival; Boone, North Carolina; July, 2006
Houston premiere: Aralee Dorough, flute; Meighan Stoops, clarinet; Angela Fuller, violin; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Bion Tsang, cello; Mark Griffith, percussion; Sarah Rothenberg, piano; October 23, 2007 at the Menil Collection
Instrumentation: flute; clarinet; violin; viola; cello; percussion; piano
Note: Shu Shon Key was commissioned for Hsin-Yun Huang by Appalachian Summer Festival, DACAMERA, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra and the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts.

CHOU WEN-CHUNG
Contrapunctus Variabilis I
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus VII. Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

PAUL COOPER
Last Call: Arias and Recitatives of Poems of CE Cooper
World premiere: Carolann Page, soprano; Carol Wincenc, flute; Charles Neidich, clarinet; Eric Halen, violin; Atar Arad, viola; Anthony Ross, cello; Brian Connelly, piano;
The Menil Collection; October 9, 1990
Instrumentation: voice, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano

C. CURTIS-SMITH
Christopher the Christ-Bearer
World premiere: Carolann Page, soprano; Jan Opalach, bass-baritone; Carol Wincenc, flute; Todd Palmer, clarinet; Charles Geyer, trumpet; Sergiu Luca, violin ;Norman Fischer, cello; Paul Ellison, doublebass; Pablo Márquez, guitar; John Kinzie, percussion; Brian Connelly, piano; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center, Houston; December 5, 1992
Instrumentation: soprano, bass-baritone, flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, doublebass, guitar,
percussion, piano

MICHAEL DOUGHERTY
Diamond in the Rough
World premiere: Eric Halen, violin; Wayne Brooks, viola; Brian Del Signore, percussion;
Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; January 27, 2006
Instrumentation: violin; viola; percussion
Note: Mozart Now Festival Commissions, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth

GABRIELA LENA FRANK
Canto de Harawi: “Amadeoso”
World premiere: Aralee Dorough, flute; David Peck, clarinet; Rodney Waters, piano; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; January 27, 2006
Instrumentation: flute; clarinet; piano
Note: Mozart Now Festival Commissions, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth

SOFIA GUBAIDULINA
Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus XVIII (unfinished). Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

STEPHEN HARTKE
From the Fifth Book
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Lee, cello); Reed College, Chamber Music Northwest, Portland; July 9, 2011
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; The Menil Collection, Houston; December 6, 2011
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: Part of the Brentano String Quartet’s Fragments: Connecting Past and Present project. Responding to Shostakovich’s unfinished Quartet movement. Commissioned by the Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium† including DACAMERA.

JOHN HARBISON
Finale: Presto
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Lee, cello); Reed College, Chamber Music Northwest, Portland; July 9, 2011
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; The Menil Collection, Houston; December 6, 2011
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: Part of the Brentano String Quartet’s Fragments: Connecting Past and Present project. Responding to Haydn’s unfinished Quartet in D Minor, Op. 103. Commissioned by the Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium† including DACAMERA.

DAVID HORNE
Subterfuge
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus VI (in the French style). Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

VIJAY IYER
Mozart Effects
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Lee, cello); Reed College, Chamber Music Northwest, Portland; July 9, 2011
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; The Menil Collection, Houston; December 6, 2011
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: Part of the Brentano String Quartet’s Fragments: Connecting Past and Present project. Responding to Mozart’s Quartet fragment in E Minor, K. 417d (1789). Commissioned by the Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium† including DACAMERA.

Time, Place, Action
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Lee, cello); Vijay Iyer, piano; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; February 15, 2014
Instrumentation: piano quintet
Note: Co-commissioned by a consortium including DACAMERA and 92nd St Y.

PIERRE JALBERT
Fanfare Da Camera
World premiere: Theresa Hanebury, Jim Vassallo, trumpets; Thomas Hulten, trombone; Cullen Theater, Wortham
Theater Center; September 28, 2012
Instrumentation: trumpet (2); trombone
Note: Commissioned for the Opening Night: 25th Anniversary Celebration

Street Antiphons
World premiere: Montrose Trio (Jon Kimura Parker, piano; Martin Beaver, violin; Clive Greensmith, cello); Richie Hawley, clarinet; Cullen Theater, Wortham
Theater Center; January 29, 2016
Instrumentation: piano trio; clarinet
Note: Co-commissioned by Da Camera, Boston Chamber Music Society, Voices of Change (Dallas) and Soli Chamber Ensemble (San Antonio)

DAVID LANG
Rays of the Sun
World premiere: Brinton Averil Smith, cello; Timothy Pitts, double bass; David Peck, clarinet; Mark Griffith, percussion; Matthew Strauss, percussion; Scott Holshouser, piano; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; January 27, 2006
Instrumentation: cello; double bass; clarinet; percussion (2); piano
Note: Mozart Now Festival Commissions, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth

RICHARD LAVENDA
Afterimages
World premiere: Diotima Quartet (Yun-Peng Zhao, violin; Vanessa Szigeti, violin; Franck Chevalier, viola; Pierre Morlet, cello); James Dunham, viola; The Menil Collection, Houston; April 9, 2013
Instrumentation: string quartet; viola
Note:

STEVEN MACKEY
Lude
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus XI. Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

WYNTON MARSALIS
Fugue
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus XII. Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

NICHOLAS MAW
Intrada
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus I. Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

ELLSWORTH MILBURN
Menil Antiphons
Recording: Ellsworth Milburn
World premiere: Carol Wincenc, flute; Charles Neidich, clarinet; Jesus Reyes, horn; Eric Ruske, horn; Richard Brown, percussion; Brian Connelly, piano; Kenneth Goldsmith, violin; Gary Hoffman, cello; The Menil Collection; April 18, 1989
Instrumentation: flute; clarinet, horn (2); percussion; piano; violin, cello
Note: First piece commissioned by DACAMERA and performed during the premiere season.

JASON MORAN
The Rauschenberg Project: Holed Up
World premiere: Jason Moran and the Bandwagon with special guests Marvin Sewell, guitar and Horace Grigsby, vocals; Wortham Theater Center; February 7, 2015
Note: The commissioning of Holed Up was supported in part by DACAMERA’s Artistic Development Fund. The world premiere performance was sponsored by Paul and Carolyn Landen and Baker Botts, LLC and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Homecoming Residency during which Holed Up was created was organized in partnership with the University of Houston Mitchell Center for the Arts and has been made possible by support from the Lynne Murray, Sr. Educational Foundation and Chamber Music America through its Residency Endowment Fund.

TOBIAS PICKER
Piano Quintet: Live Oaks
Dedication: Sarah Rothenberg and the Brentano String Quartet
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Sarah Rothenberg, piano; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; Houston; September 23, 2011
Instrumentation: string quartet; piano
Note: Made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund. Support was also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Recording: Invisible Lilacs (Tzadik)

SHULAMIT RAN
Bach – Shards
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus X. Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

POUL RUDERS
Six Romances for viola and piano
World premiere: Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Sarah Rothenberg, piano; The Juilliard School, New York; October 21, 2011
Instrumentation: viola; piano
Note: Co-commissioned by Hsin-Yun Huang and DACAMERA
Recording: Viola Viola (Bridge)

KAIJA SAARIAHO
Sombre
World premiere: Daniel Belcher, baritone; Camilla Hoitenga, bass flute; Bridget Kibbey, harp; Matthew Strauss, percussion; Sarah Rothenberg, piano; Rothko Chapel, Houston; February 23, 2013
Instrumentation: baritone, bass flute, harp, percussion, piano
Note: Commissioned by DACAMERA as part of the DACAMERA Tryptych, three commissions celebrating the 25th anniversaries of DACAMERA and The Menil Collection.
Recording: Let the wind speak (Ondine)

WAYNE SHORTER
Terra Incognita
World premiere: Imani Winds (Valerie Coleman, flute; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe; Mariam Adam, clarinet; Monica Ellis, bassoon; Jeff Scott, horn); La Jolla Music Society, La Jolla, California; August 18, 2006
Houston premiere: Imani Winds; Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts; Houston, November 3, 2006
Recording: Imani Winds Terra Incognita
Instrumentation: flute; oboe; clarinet; bassoon; horn
Note: Commissioned by La Jolla Music Society, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, DACAMERA and the Library of Congress.
Recording: Terra Incognita (E1 Music)

KENDRICK SCOTT
Unearthed
World premiere: Kendrick Scott, composer/drums; Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, poet; Robert Hodge, visual artist; Erin Earle Fleming, lighting design; Gerald Clayton, piano; Walter Smith III, saxophone; Joe Sanders, bass; Harlem Quartet (Ilmar Gavilán, violin; Melissa White, violin; Jaime Amador, viola; Felix Umansky, cello); Wortham Center, Houston, TX; May 12, 2023
Instrumentation: drums, spoken word, piano, saxophone, bass, string quartet
Press: “Scott has made a work of searing emotional power and elegant musical flow. He was mentored by Terence Blanchard, and I hear a similar clarity of purpose in Scott’s writing for rhythm section and string quartet. (The string arranger on the project, Alex Brown, did a fine job of implementing his ideas.) There’s sometimes a tendency to lean toward abstraction when working with charged material such as this, but Scott is an Inside Man, and a gifted melodist besides. He knows his strengths.” — Nate Chinen

TYSHAWN SOREY
Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)
World premiere: Tyshawn Sorey, composer, conductor; Houston Chamber Choir; Davóne Tines, bass-baritone; Kim Kashkashian, viola;
Steven Schick, percussion; Sarah Rothenberg, piano/celesta; Rothko Chapel, Houston, TX; February 19-20, 2022
Instrumentation: solo voice, choir, viola, percussion, piano/celesta
Note: Commissioned by DACAMERA and Rothko Chapel in celebration of the Chapel’s 50th anniversary. Finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music. From the Pulitzer citation: “an exquisitely crafted composition that balances density with fragile detail using chords and singing, particularly a strong bass voice, a masterful blend of sound and contemplative silence. “

GEORGE TSONTAKIS
Meditations at Perigee
Recording: Heartsounds: Music of George Tsontakis (Koch)
World premiere: Alan R. Kay, clarinet; David Jolley, horn; Curtis Macomber, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Norman Fischer, cello; Paul Ellison, doublebass; Sarah Rothenberg, piano; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; May 2, 1997
Instrumentation: clarinet; horn; violin; viola; cello; doublebass; piano
Note: Made possible by a grant from Meet the Composer/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund.

ERIK ULMAN
Pan
World premiere: Clare Chase, flute; Giancarlo Latta, violin; Cy Twombly Gallery on the campus of the Menil Collection; April 2, 2018
Instrumentation: flute; violin
Note: Commissioned by DACAMERA with support from Robin Angly and Miles Smith

CHARLES WUORINEN
ALAP
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus IX. Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

Ashberyana
Recording: Ashberyana, Fenton Songs (Naxos)
World premiere: Leon Williams, baritone; James Pugh, trombone; Mark Steinberg, violin; David Fulmer, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello; Sarah Rothenberg, piano; The Menil Collection, October 11, 2005
Instrumentation: baritone; trombone; string quartet; piano
Note: Ashberyana was commissioned by DACAMERA in 2002 in honor of Sarah Rothenberg’s ten seasons as Artistic Director. Funds for this commission were provided by Chamber Music America’s Commissioning Program, supported by Chamber Music America Endowment Fund. Additional support provided by Works and Process at the Guggenheim and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Marian Tropes
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Lee, cello); Reed College, Chamber Music Northwest, Portland; July 9, 2011
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; The Menil Collection, Houston; December 6, 2011
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: Part of the Brentano String Quartet’s Fragments: Connecting Past and Present project. Responding to fragments of a gloria by Josquin and a kyrie by Dufay. Commissioned by the Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium† including DACAMERA.

Alphabetical Ashbery
World premiere: loadbang (Jeffrey Gavett, bariton; Andy Kozar, trumpet; Will Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet); The Menil Collection, Houston; April 8, 2014
Instrumentation: baritone voice, trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet
Note: Co-commission

ERIC ZIVIAN
Double Fugue
World premiere: Brentano String Quartet (Mark Steinberg, violin; Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory, viola; Nina Maria Lee, cello); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; October 2, 2002
Houston premiere: Brentano String Quartet; Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center; March 14, 2003
Instrumentation: string quartet
Note: From the Brentano String Quartet’s Bach Now: 10 Composers React to The Art of The Fugue. Responding to Contrapunctus IV. Commissioned by Brentano String Quartet and co-commissioned by a consortium‡ including DACAMERA.

†Consortium for Brentano Fragments project: Caramoor Center for the Arts, Katonah, NY; Carnegie Hall, New York, NY; Chamber Music Northwest, Portland, OR; Chamber Music Society of Detroit with support from Ruth Rattner and Ann and Norman Katz; onStage at Connecticut College, New London, CT; DACAMERA; Fontana Chamber Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL; Luther College, Decorah, IA; Rockport Music, Rockport, MA; Judith and David Falk for Salt Bay Chamberfest, Damariscotta, ME; San Francisco Performances; and Spivey Hall at Clayton State University, Morrow, GA.

‡Consortium for Brentano Bach Now project: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Great Performers at Lincoln Center; Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, University of Chicago, Middlebury College, Chamber Music Northwest, Caramoor Festival, DACAMERA, the Library of Congress, Spivey Hall, Celebrity Series of Boston, The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Champaign-Urbana and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society 

 

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We offer a broad range of repertoire and musical styles in innovative concerts of outstanding musical excellence.

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